Review and Swatches: Illamasqua Fundamental Palette

Hello!

Do you know why I have a soft spot for Illamasqua? They dropped their Australian prices to be in line with the price of their products in England, voluntarily! That gets them major brownie points with me. Today's review is on Illamasqua's Fundamental Palette.

Illamasqua Fundamental Palette

Here's the advertising spiel:

"A startling blend of colours and textures, this bold palette is a playground for self-expression. Liquid Metal in molten pewter glistens alongside matt Cream Pigment in mint green, contrasting brevely with two bright Powder Shadow shades. Express your alter ego with a vivid display of nonconformity."

Illamasqua Fundamental Palette shadows in pan
L-R (top row): Hype, Liquid Metal in Surge;
L-R (lower row): Cream Pigment in Bedaub, Inception.

Illamasqua Fundamental Palette swatches
L-R: Hype, Inception, Liquid Metal in Surge, and Cream Pigment in Bedaub.

Review:

• Packaging: The packaging looks cool in and of itself but it's very bulky for only four shadows.
• Eyeshadow: The advertising is right; this is a unique combination of colours. What this isn't is a palette for easy every-day wear. With only 4 shadows, and all of them being so different, you need other eyeshadows with which to mix and match.
• Hype: bright matte yellow powder eyeshadow. It is a bit powdery but it's pigmentation is good and the colour is true to pan; the swatch above was done with one swipe of a sponge applicator. On the eyes, it takes two swipes to get it bright yellow. You have to be careful with this one, as a lighter application can make you look ill. After three hours with primer, it still looked perfect.
• Inception: light-medium matte purple powder eyeshadow. It's powdery and has very poor colour payoff, as you can see in the swatch above (one swipe of a sponge applicator). It took me many swipes to get to appear decently vibrant on my eyelid, too. I'm very unimpressed with the pigmentation. After three hours, with primer, it had faded significantly, and concentrated the colour in the crease.
• Liquid Metal in Surge: silver-pewter metallic creme eyeshadow with silver glitter, this shade is goregous. I am unused to working with creme shadows (I avoid them because of creasing and application difficulty). The swatch was done with one light swipe (finger). The good news is it looks fantastic on the eyes. The bad news is that it creases like crazy, even with primer, after only 2 hours.
• Cream Pigment in Bedaub: light mint green creme eyeshadow. This is nice and the pigmentation is decent, but again, longevity issues.
• Cost:  GBP 34.00, and I think AUD$78. You get 2g of the Liquid Metal shadow, 1g of the Cream Pigment and 2x 1.5g of Powder Shadow. It's a decent amount of product per shadow but it's expensive!

Final Verdict:
 C+
Interesting colour combination but it has poor longevity and it's very expensive.

I've tried some of Illamasqua's eyeshadow pigments in store and loved them so hopefully I'll have some more positive reviews in future- I'd love to be able to rave about the product and not just the pricing drop.

xo
Anna